Is there a 'First Table Break' rule?

[Frank_In_Stein]

I was playing at a local low-limit tournament in Las Vegas where late entries and re-entries were allowed for the first hour. There were some quick exits by a few players and the tournament director decided that she had to consolidate the tables. However, after doing so, she announced to the room that there will be no more late or re-entries, even though only 45 minutes had elapsed. I asked why and she told me that there is a "First Break Rule" stating, effectively, that entries into any tournament were not allowed after one table in the tournament broke.

I've searched online and in various books for this rule but to no avail. For the life of me, I don't see the logic behind it. Say there's 31 players on four tables. Two people bust out and the tables are broken down to three with one empty seat. What does that table breaking have to do with whather or not a new player can buy that seat, provided the tournament is still within the late entry period?

[kcmoore]

i think she was leveling you [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Al_Capone_Junior]

I've never heard of such a rule. If someone has, or can give a good reason for it, please do let me know.

Al

[Trainwreck]

I think it's called: 'We want you low limit tournament donkeys in our more profitable cash games ASAP strategy, and to hell with rules, we want this BLEEP'N tourney over already!'

Their hope is offering a tourney gets people in the room and after you donk off your chips you will stay for a cash game.

If first place isn't at least 20x the buyin, I prefer to skip it.

The TD in this case is a lazy morie...

I've seen some stupid things in these tournaments, like one table going to 6 players for 20 mins without being rebalanced while 3 other tables have 9, people who can't handle 4 tables shouldn't be TD'n in the first place.

Unfortunately, I don't think TDA rules often are applied, it's more often TD on the fly decision STANDS in these low end crap shoots.

[RR]

[ QUOTE ]
I've never heard of such a rule. If someone has, or can give a good reason for it, please do let me know.

Al

[/ QUOTE ]

Often these events will sell the unsold stacks up until the break. If they break a table it involves removing these stacks from play.

[bav]

I played somewhere once that had that rule, though I don't recall where. It was something like entries were allowed for the first 30 minutes or until the first table broke.

But that's the exception and not the rule. Most tourneys just have a fixed time during which they'll allow new entries. What varies is how many chips they give you when you arrive late. Some hand you a full stack. Some sit you down to a blinded-off stack. Some sit you down to a stack reduced by a fixed amount based on entry time. And in some it seems to vary every day depending on who's working.